David Petraeus scandal: Gen John Allen investigated for 'inappropriate communications' to Jill Kelley

The US commander in Afghanistan, General John Allen, is under investigation for “inappropriate”
emails to a woman linked to the sex scandal involving former CIA director David Petraeus, a defense official has said. The emails are said to have been sent to Jill Kelley whose complaint led the FBI to uncover Gen Petraeus’s extra-marital affair with Paula Broadwell.

Some details about Allen, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, came from a terse overnight statement by Defense Secretary Leon Panetta. Petraeus resigned abruptly last week over an extramarital affair with his biographer Paula Broadwell. Kelley, of Tampa, Florida, had alerted the FBI to receiving threatening emails earlier this year that were eventually traced to Broadwell.

The US commander in Afghanistan, General John Allen, is under investigation for “inappropriate”
emails to a woman linked to the sex scandal involving former CIA director David Petraeus

The defense official says the investigation into Allen involves 20,000 to 30,000 emails that were dated between 2010 and 2012, and that the department is in the very early stages of their investigation. Panetta said in a statement that his department was informed about the case by the FBI on Sunday and that he had referred it to the Pentagon’s inspector general for investigation.

David Petraeus Scandal New Details With Jill Kelley And Paula Broadwell

The woman who was the target of harassing emails from the lover of former CIA director David Petraeus has been named as Jill Kelley. A person familiar with the investigation identified the second woman on Sunday as Jill Kelley, a long-time friend of the Petraeus family and a Tampa, Florida, volunteer social liaison with military families at MacDill Air Force Base.

The New York Times reported Saturday that on October 31, Cantor’s chief of staff phoned the FBI to inform the agency about the call between the congressman and the FBI official. Sunday evening, a woman who looked like Kelley was startled by cameras in her front lawn.

Photographs showed the Petraeuses and the Kelleys posing together at a pirate-themed festival in 2010 and ABC News reported that the families had spent Christmases together. Kelley is an unpaid social liaison to U.S. Central Command — the military headquarters based at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa that oversees operations in the Middle East, including Iraq and Afghanistan.

Paula Broadwell: Things To Know About The Woman who had extramarital affair with ex-CIA director David Petraeus

Paula Broadwell and Her Alleged Affair with David Petraeus? Who is Broadwell's Husband? Here is Info on Scott Broadwell. An American writer and researcher Paula Broadwell was reported to have been involved in the extramarital affair cited by Petraeus as his grounds for resignation as Director of the Central Intelligence Agency.

Broadwell is the author, with Vernon Loeb, of All In: The Education of General David Petraeus, a glowing 400-page biography of Petraeus, for which she was granted almost total access. About three and a half minutes into the clip, Jon Stewart and Broadwell discuss Petraeus' habit of running with her to get to know her while she was embedded with him in Afghanistan.

NBC quotes that Broadwell's Twitter account describes her as a national security analyst and Army veteran. A biography on her website, which went offline Friday evening, said she is married to a radiologist and has two children, both boys.

The family lives in Charlotte, N.C. The biography said she is a West Point graduate and a research associate at Harvard University's Center for Public Leadership and a doctoral candidate in the Department of War Studies at King's College London.

Broadwell's website is no longer up, but before it was taken down the New York Observer grabbed most of the relevant information. Only two people know how the affair started, but the world knows now about its inglorious end, CNN quotes while reporting that CIA director David Petraeus has resigned from his post.

The affair was discovered during an FBI investigation, according to officials briefed on the developments. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to publicly discuss the matter.

It was unclear what the FBI was investigating or when it became aware of the affair. The revelation shocked Washington just three days after the re-election of US President Barack Obama and shortly before Petraeus had been due to testify on the CIA's alleged failure to properly protect of a US consulate in Libya.

He was the highest-profile military officer of the post-9/11 years, winning plaudits for his role running the "surge" in Iraq and implementing a counter-insurgency strategy in Afghanistan. Petraeus, who turned 60 on Wednesday, told CIA employees in a statement that he had met President Barack Obama at the White House on Thursday and asked to be allowed to resign.

On Friday, Obama accepted. NBC television and other US media reported that the FBI was investigating Paula Broadwell, who published a detailed biography of Petraeus, "All In," for improper access to classified information. The resignation comes amid criticism in some quarters of Petraeus over his response to a deadly attack in September on a US consulate in Benghazi, which killed the US ambassador to Libya and three other Americans.

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper hailed Petraeus, saying his "decision to step down represents the loss of one of our nation's most respected public servants." Obama said in a statement that Petraeus had provided "extraordinary service to the United States for decades" and had given a lifetime of service that "made our country safer and stronger". He called Petraeus "one of the outstanding general officers of his generation".